A Cake for All Seasons–the Jelly Roll, by Beverly Hicks Burch

This past Christmas (2012) was a hectic time in my house. Twelve days before Christmas my mom had major surgery and was under doctor’s orders to do nothing, lift nothing heavier than a magazine. Although I had been under the weather myself, I wasn’t quite to that point (yet!).

So, what’s a family to do? Well, get together two sisters and one Tall & Handsome and somewhere in that mix a Christmas dinner will fall out…I promise.

The jelly roll is a simple little sponge cake. It’s very easy to whip up and make. By looking at it you would think it’s complicated, but it’s really not. If you bake it, it will turn out great!

The flavor of your jelly roll is limited to your taste buds. The one I made for Ch1ristmas was raspberry, but I have made strawberry. You could use lemon curd or lime curd or any other flavor that strikes your fancy. One year I made a pumpkin jelly roll with a cream cheese filling. Yummm, that is so good it will make your tongue want to slap the back of your head!

We always serve a dollop of Cool Whip (Lite for me) with it, but if whipped cream strikes your fancy, then there you go. Since the jelly roll is made with no fat or oil, it’s relatively low calorie (1/10 of the cake has about 150 calories).

So, if you’re looking for a yummy new dessert to try on your family, give this one a try.

Jelly Roll

3 eggs

1 cups sugar

¼ cup cold water

1 teaspoon pure vanilla flavoring

1 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon kosher salt

For the filling:

1 cup seedless raspberry jam (or a flavor of your liking – also you can use a tad more if it strikes your fancy)